Bastl Instruments reinvents the Kalimba as an evolved multi-mode Synthesizer

This has been all over social media as of late, and I do generally enjoy the Kalimba format - I use mine quite a lot with my Boss RC-600 Loop Station - it’s a great instrument for looping and tweaking on-the-fly. And I had long considered the £275 Lottie Canto Colour Palette take on the Kalimba - which adds 8 effects to the core Kalimba - mine just has the output jack - which works very nicely with my wireless system. While Bastl Instruments’ take is a whole other category. Essentially the Kalimba re-imagined as a Multi-Mode Performance Synthesizer - with Arpeggiator and Looper onboard - and a huge array of dynamic effects. It will be the ’Keytar’ for this generation / era!

I ummed and ahhed as to whether I would get enough use out of this evolved Bastl Kalimba to justify the acquisition - in fact I cogitated on it just a fraction too long and missed out on the super early Kickstarter price of €389, but managed to hit the very reasonable €420 offering - which equates to around £365 - which I feel is really very reasonable for a performance synthesizer with this much on-the-fly dynamic ability.

It will still mostly be a bit-part instruments for me as I of course favour the guitar around 99% of the time - but I do dabble in synths and percussive instruments every now and again - particularly of the Teenage Engineering variety.

I feel this is a really smartly and beautifully designed, and a so very cleverly thought out device. There’s going to be a bit of a learning curve to it - it has so many functions and secondary parameters - along with those cool arcade style touch pads - which allow you to shift octaves and pitches for starters.

It took me several days to make the decision, and I feel it was definiltey the right one - I just wish I had made it a tiny bit sooner - while there really isn’t that much in it, and the price I got it for is still amazing.

There’s a lot to get to grips with here - per the full feature set - as follows below, starting with the Controls and Rear Ports.

The Bastl Instruments Kalimba is currently up on Kickstarter, where there are also a tonne of details on the Bastl Instruments Website!

Bastl is looking to make 1,500 by the end of the year, where most should receive theirs by Christmas. If the number of backers exceeds 1,500, then a further batch of circa 750 will go out 3-4 months later - so around March/April 2027 for the stragglers.

This won’t be for everyone - but I imagine most who enjoy playing around with Kalimbas - will find much to like here!

Controls - TIMBRE [LPF < Filter > HPF], OCTAVE DOWN, EXCITE [Bitcrusher <|> Distortion], BLEND [Tape <|> Chorus/Flange], DETUNE [Night <|> Day Time], BODY [Delay <|> Reverb], OCTAVE UP, DECAY [Quiet <|> Loud], SCALE [- ? C / C#], ARP [D / D#], LOCK [+ / E / F], REC [F# / G], TEMPO [G# / A], SHIFT [A# / B], TINES 1-12, SOIL [Earthy Resonance], PAD, GLIDE [Slide], WIND [Airy Resonance].

Rear Ports / Controls - Right Touch Point (Pitch Up), TRS MIDI / Analog Clock Output, Audio Out / Stereo Headphones, USB-C, TRS MIDI Input, Analog Clock Input, Left Touch Point (Pitch Down).